a dog's life

So, today Jimmy and Junior went to their first ever day at doggy day care. But before you think I have officially crossed over the brink of insanity, let me explain:

Greg and I have had issues with finding/trusting/being satisfied with people watching our dogs. In our perfect world, a dog-lover who has nothing else to do with their day but sit in our house and watch our dogs would come over and stay at our house while we were away. We've tried having people stay at the house, or stop by several times throughout the day while we gone, with varying degrees of success.

We found someone to watch the pups here when we go to Cape Cod in two weeks for a few days, but then a semi-impromptu trip to New York came up. We're only going away for one night next weekend, but of course the first question is, "what are we going to do with the pups?"

If you know my pups, you know they are a handful. They are wonderful, and I love them, but they require a lot of attention. So we decided it was time to investigate boarding them. We did not want to take them to a typical kennel. Planet Bark (www.planetbark.com - do yourself a favor and check out this site!) had been recommended to us by several people, so Greg went by there a couple of days ago to check it out. Well, no dice - they were closed at lunchtime for two hours for "naptime and snacktime." We knew this was the place for us.

Planet Bark - which touts itself as being "West Hartford's luxury dog daycare and overnight resort" - has at least 50 dogs there every day for doggy day care. The schedule for the dogs includes morning playtime with friends, the aforementioned midday naptime and snacktime, and then afternoon playtime with friends. Their overnight accommodations might make you jealous -the evening concludes with dimming lights, soft music, and a belly rub.

Jimmy and Junior had their interview this morning, which was followed by their trial run - a day at doggy day care. Of course, because I'm a complete loser, I was worried all day. Worried they wouldn't have fun, worried they would miss us, worried that they would cause considerable damage to themselves, each other, other dogs, toys, people, whatever. Greg thought I was a total lunatic when I asked him if they looked sad when he dropped them off. "What would you rather do," he said, "sit in the kitchen all day or play all day with a bunch of dogs?" Touche.

We picked them up after work, and they got a good report card, except for the fact that Jimmy was a little nippy with dogs and people at first (shocker). They are completely exhausted - Junior fell asleep on the ride home, and they are both passed out on the couch now, which is a miracle, considering this is usually their most active time of night.

So next Saturday will be the true test - will the dogs survive their overnight stay, and will I be able to stop thinking about them long enough to have fun in New York?